FuturePrint Podcast
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FuturePrint Podcast
#236 Inside KELENN Technology's Innovative Inkjet Solutions
Technological innovation sits at the heart of printing's evolution, yet few companies demonstrate this commitment quite like KELENN Technology. In this enlightening conversation, founder Didier Rousseau reveals how his Paris-based company has spent two decades developing groundbreaking inkjet solutions by reinvesting an astonishing 50% of revenue directly into R&D.
What makes their approach distinctive is the modular building-block methodology. Rather than starting from scratch with each customer challenge, they've developed scalable technological components that can be rapidly assembled and customized. The result? Custom printing systems that can be fully operational within just one week after installation – a remarkable achievement in an industry where implementation typically stretches across months.
The applications showcase the versatility of their technology: flexo replacement solutions that achieve demanding solid color densities at 1200 dpi; envelope systems processing 20,000 documents hourly at three meters per second; direct-to-shape printing using robotics to apply photographic-quality images onto three-dimensional objects like lenses; corrugated printing at 360 meters per minute despite variable surface distances; and perhaps most intriguingly, security printing innovations including direct watermark application onto packaging. Behind these developments stands KT Labs, their research facility housing approximately 50 different equipment types dedicated to analyzing and optimizing the complex relationships between substrates, inks, printheads, and applications. This testing environment creates a fast pathway from concept to industrial validation.
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FuturePrint TECH: Industrial Print: 21-22 January '26, Munich, Germany
Welcome to the Future Print Podcast, celebrating print technology and the people behind it.
Speaker 2:Hi and welcome to this week's Future Print Podcast. It's Fraser Chesterman and I have Didier from Kellan Technology with me and I'm very pleased to talk to him because it's lots of interesting applications and I'm very pleased to have him join me. Didier, good to see you.
Speaker 3:Good to see you as well. Yes, it's a pleasure. This is the first time I'm doing a podcast with Future Prince, so it's a great pleasure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Didier. So I think, on that basis, we should start with you telling us a bit about you and a bit about Kellan Technology, because some people may not know you, and that's the purpose of the podcast, really.
Speaker 3:Sure, tell us. Okay, so I'm the founder of the company. When was that? We founded the company 20 years ago and I'm rather interested in technology. That's the core activity of the company. We are developing inkjet vision systems and all the activities around that for the market. The company is a strange company, shall I say. We are investing 50% of the revenues into R&D and we are selling broadly worldwide. I would say 40 people into the company, based south of Paris, on this, I would say, standalone building dedicated for us.
Speaker 2:Didier, that's quite an interesting claim that you just said 50% of your revenues are going back into technological development. Is that a philosophy, or is that just a kind of business approach? Why is that A?
Speaker 3:philosophy or is that just a kind of business approach? Why is that? It's both, but first of all it's a philosophy. How shall I explain that? I mean, there are plenty of companies into this business, so we are not interested into being, you know, a similar one again, shall I say first of all and we are developing a lot of technology into the company which we believe can help and this is when we're talking about business. By the end of the day, we need to find a way to help the community and we help the community through technology and through the robustness of what we are offering to the market. And for that we have all sorts of resources like KT Labs and production activities and etc.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll talk about KT Labs in a minute. So just stepping back a bit, what's your background?
Speaker 3:I'm an engineer in electronics, okay, but for some reason, in a previous business I was working in the defence industry, and my managers? They awarded me some interesting managing activities and training, and so I was able to set up my own company by myself, thanks to this company, which is Airbus Industry, actually.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, a fine company, yeah. So now explaining a little bit more about the technology. And you know, you and I met at Drupa. You had a machine there, or a couple of machines there. You've got some partnerships with some head manufacturers, different head manufacturers. We were just talking about some of the applications. How's the business work? So, does someone come to you and ask for a customized piece of technology, or do you have off-the-shelf technology? How's it work?
Speaker 3:yeah, we have off-the-shelf technology okay, and we mainly reuse this technology to build a solution for our customers. Whether this is, uh, purely just electronics and software okay for some of them. Whether this is a print engine, um, whether this is, I would say, a printer to be connected to some existing machine, and for some of the customers also is I would say, r? D, pure r? D. They are looking for a new process and they know that we may be able to help them.
Speaker 2:And are they? I guess you know, with business it might come through partners who are also out talking to people and they might say oh, someone's come to us asking for this, we can't do this, but you can, Can you help? Come to us asking for this, we can't do this, but you can, Can you help? But I guess in the main it's quite difficult to know where to go to find the potential customers, because they may not know today that they have a particular requirement, but tomorrow they may have. Does that make sense?
Speaker 3:Definitely yes, in the idle world, I would say we should communicate on what is possible, what we are doing, et cetera, et cetera, which we don't do. So most of the customers they call us or they meet us at trade shows. But you're right, by understanding better what is possible on the market, it will help them move forward much more quickly. But this is very difficult to do for a small company. We are only 40 people into the company.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So on that basis, then, I guess you probably work in certain markets, certain niches. You tend to prefer doing that, do you? Or are you quite broad in your markets and applications?
Speaker 3:Obviously, yeah, these are niches, niches, rather niches. However, they are on major markets, always rather niches. However, they are on on on major markets always. I mean the the engine professional inject is either, uh, I mean, is a lot of niches. Uh, so we are in, I mean in various activities. Uh, I could, maybe I can have a rough explanation of where we are in terms of market segments and what we are delivering as a difference. Because the real question is is there any difference between what we are delivering and what others are delivering?
Speaker 3:for example example, um, let's say, for example, for we are delivering some, some applications for the um yeah, for flexo replacement with a digital inject, okay, and in this business, uh, there are key issues such as the quality of the solids within jet and the intensity of color, and we achieved that with 1200 dpi, uv or water-based, with a number of features, which makes the system efficient for the customer. So they can really replace into the flexor group that they have into their factory. They can place a print engine and do the same, but now with non-stop activities, I would say, rather than cleaning and et cetera, then it's non-stop. So this is for flexo replacement. We really have interesting solutions.
Speaker 3:If we are talking about envelope printing, this is a niche market. Typically we are printing on viable thickness documents at high speed, at three meters per second, so we can print 20,000 documents per hour continuously and we have factories worldwide, everywhere printing with our systems. If we are talking about direct-to-shape printing, so that is robotics, you know, printing on a 3d part, like, for example, lenses, we can print with photographics quality. Oh, wow, and that's yeah, this is absolutely amazing and again, there there are some specific capabilities of our systems to be able to do that. When we are talking about corrugated business, we can print at very high speed, up to 360 meter per minute at a distance. As you know, corrugated is a bit complex, not flat, but we can print at distance and we have some very specific features which makes us being able to do that. And if we are talking about security business security printing we have an interesting, I would say, viable data printing software with track and trace and with a secured environment which makes it different from what you can find on the market.
Speaker 3:And we print with how should I say processes which are unusual? How shall I say processes which are unusual? And, for example, we can print watermarks straight away on sheets or packages.
Speaker 2:And that's again an innovation from our company. So quite exciting application potential really. Lots of different markets but also, as you said, quite unique. So I'm interested in one of your claims is your proven technology, and I guess I I'm interested to know what you mean by that very simple.
Speaker 3:uh, if you are a customer, yep, how long would you like to wait, when the the printer is ready, shipped to you, for this printer to be ready to print into your company when you receive it In our case, I would say for some semi-custom product one week after we are on site you can start your production, that's impressive. Yeah, that proves Whoa we have no more Oops. Yeah, it's coming back. So that proves that it's reliable, although it's custom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, sure, sure.
Speaker 3:So proven technology means that it's been verified a lot in-house, of course, and we are. We are not starting from zero when we are delivering a new product to a customer. We are starting from bricks of technologies that we are assembling uh all together brilliant, brilliant.
Speaker 2:That really is, yeah, quite a clever way of doing it. Just Just to let everyone know why you stopped. A second ago, the lights went out where you were. All of a sudden, didier was in the dark, which is not true. Sorry about that.
Speaker 3:Solved in a matter of seconds.
Speaker 2:Solved in a matter of seconds, like Kellentech technology. So interesting. Yeah, that kind of building blocks idea is clever, isn't it so you? So you sort of build up to the challenge, if that makes sense yeah, we, for example, let's talk about um ink, ink management.
Speaker 3:Okay, so we design ink management systems and they are scalable, of course. Yep, but the technology is made so that we can really adapt to any system very quickly. Uh, well, in this case there is a pattern for that, but never mind. What I'm saying is it's already designed by the company and we can scale it up and adjust to any customers very quickly and all the stuff that goes with it. If we are talking about the, the we design in house electronics. Of course we don't buy electronics, but, however, the designs are scalable again. So, whichever is the printed, we can adjust the design very quickly and it's a robust design and scalable again. In other words, it's purely one single board and then everything is software-related. So the setup is very easy, I would say, to organize for any new project.
Speaker 2:Yeah, interesting. So, as you said, you've already got the template, basically, haven't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you talked a little earlier about the Kellan Tech Labs, the KT Labs. Explain this to me. It's just interesting for people to understand this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, basically we are facing all of us. We are facing a challenge into the industry which is to accommodate with the substrate, the ink, the printhead, the application and whichever you ask in terms of applications. All these needs to be addressed somehow and what we're doing in KT Labs is we have a group of research people and quite a lot of equipment actually approximately 50 different equipment which are used to analyze, expertise, understand and create new processes. So in other words, anything related with the viscosity, surface tension, color management, post-press, you know whichever drying, curing, etc. Etc. We have all the equipment in-house and with these equipments we can really address the issue, reformulate, discuss with manufacturers and find the appropriate way, for example in terms of ink management etc. To cope with the project from the customer.
Speaker 3:And with KT Labs there is a platform with industrial machines which are customized. They stay into the company, they are customized for the experimentation and have a fast pathway between the pure R&D and then the industrial test before we design the full machine for the customer. So that allows us to go very fast into the process, much faster than usual, and be able to deliver proven and reliable again, because we've done so many tests before that we can really install the system and be secure into the process of managing the timing for the project interesting, interesting.
Speaker 2:Uh. So just stepping back um 2004 and now into 2005, you were just saying to me a little earlier that, um, you've had a couple of quite good months. January was good, february has been quite good. So tell me what kind of things you're seeing, if you can, if you can share the kind of projects.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, of course. Yes, I mean, for example, this year is a year with a lot of activities into the corrugated, into the flex packaging, into the envelope printing, which is surprising yeah interesting, we and and of course, yes, and of course, into the die to shape printing and we've we've started also some first customers for, uh, for example, for printing um watermarks. Surprisingly so, this is something very new, but still already starting. So, um, the activity is is growing in an interesting way and a lot related with the packaging.
Speaker 2:Just picking up on that envelopes idea. Are you sensing then that there's a return to the use of envelopes?
Speaker 3:high-quality envelopes. This business is the envelope business is going down okay, and what happens while it's going down is specializing into high-end envelope printing, I would say, or specialty envelope printing, where we are with a lot of applications, I would say Some linked with, I would say, security actually it's surprising and the massive and more massive activities where we are printing, I would say, hundreds of thousands of envelopes per day, but this activity is reducing in terms of number of customers. But we have some very good customers who are moving forward in terms of production, very, very good increase in production and most of it is specifically this is interesting linked with the fact that we are printing very fast and reliably at the back end of inserters and so that makes the process fully automated and the customers can have their logo and addressing and all sort of information onto the envelope. So two separate markets and the middle market for us is almost not existing at all anymore.
Speaker 2:Market for us is almost not existing at all anymore. So, in terms of your technology, are you fairly technology agnostic? In terms of your working relationships, you know, I know, that you use Ricoh heads or Epson heads, but are you fairly open about that? Is it whatever suits the requirement, the particular application? How do you decide?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, some time ago we would have had a lot of piezo manufacturers working with us. Now we are mainly focusing on with two of them Ripple for some specialty applications and Epson for the mainstream applications. I would say it doesn't mean that we would not work with any others, on the contrary on, because, as you understand, of course, with any others, on the contrary on, because, as you understand, of course, uh, I mean there is almost one piezo which fits a single application, I mean, and every single application has a different uh requirement in terms of viscosity or speed or whichever, and so, of course, we we adjust to the market, but if, if I'm, for example, uh focusing on the different applications that I described to you, I can handle these applications with the two of the guys that I discussed with you.
Speaker 2:So we will see you down in Valencia. What is the focus of your presentation down there?
Speaker 3:What is the focus of your presentation down there? I'm going to discuss about some interesting flexible packaging application where we print at the input of a pouch inserter and that means that the pouch inserter is no more stopping during the full day of production. So it's the increase of production which we are interested in. I will certainly also discuss a little bit about security printing for the packaging industry and a little bit also about flexo replacement within JET. These three somehow are related into new applications for the packaging yeah, interesting, interesting.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, that is quite that's. And security still remains quite interesting. A market, doesn't it?
Speaker 3:security printing it's I it's difficult to to say because I'm a small company, so how does it go worldwide? I don't know, but for us it's a growing business. It's a growing business related with the demand for more security for the banking activity, more security for the governmental activities, like the identity stuff, whichever they are, and also the requirement for the packaging typically, for the packaging typically or the trademarks, to include security at low cost. The problem of the security is that it's costly, and because it is costly for the packaging industry, it's a problem. So I'm going to demonstrate how we can make security features easy to understand for the end user and very low cost.
Speaker 2:Very interesting, didier. Thank you very much for giving us user and very low cost. Very interesting, didier. Thank you very much for giving us a bit of your time. That's been 20, 25 minutes that we've chatted. Hope that's given the listener a chance to find out more about Canon technology. As Didier mentions, he'll be down in Valencia speaking, which would be great, and hoping to see him later in the year with his machines. Thank you, didier, I really appreciate that. Was there anything you wanted to just add at the final part?
Speaker 3:no, uh, well, uh, I hope you will be a number of people, a lot, a lot of people at valencia. It's going to be very interesting, I I'm pretty sure. And, uh, it will be a pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 2:And if you can't make it, obviously, then we'll put the contact details of Didier and his company on the show notes for this particular podcast and there will be a short article in our Futureprint online newsletter that we'll talk about a bit more about what we've discussed today. Didier, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you very much, good to see you and I look forward to seeing you down in Valencia.
Speaker 3:Yes, Speak to you soon.
Speaker 1:Bye-bye, thank you very much, Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, you can subscribe now for more great audio content. Coming up and visit futureprinttech for the latest news, partner interviews, in-depth industry research and to catch up on content from Futureprint events. We'll see you next time on the Futureprint Podcast.
